Related Coverage

FREMONT (KRON) — Fremont police have reopened a cold case 35 years after a woman was murdered.

On March 8, 1982, at about 5:00 a.m., Kathy Ann Miramontes was found on Chase Court in the Niles district of Fremont.

Miramontes’ body showed signs of extreme trauma and was quickly determined to be a homicide.

Fremont detectives investigated the case, but it ultimately went unsolved.

Now, her case has been reopened and that is exactly what her family wants.

“I was ten years old,” her son told KRON4. “I still remember my mom, I remember the last night I saw her…she had to go to the store, I wanted to go with her, it was a Sunday night, she said no she would be right back and that’s the last time I ever saw her.”

The last night Jaime Patino saw his mom was more than 35 years ago.

“A female was laying on the ground, partially clothed, badly beaten, had lacerations to her body, it was pretty bad,” said Geneve Bosques of Fremont Police.

With Patino’s encouragement, the department’s cold case detective began reviewing the case about two and half years ago.

“I do want to know, and I understand there is also a chance we may never but it doesn’t mean we don’t try,” Patino said.

Police say Miramontes ran with a bad crowd and was involved in drugs and that may have lead to her murder. Investigators have re-interviewed witnesses and sent evidence to the lab for DNA testing.

DNA was discovered, though no match was found.

“But it belongs to somebody out there,” Bosques said. “Whether that person is still alive, we don’t know. Whether they’re local, we don’t know. Whether they’ve left the country, we don’t know. But we do know somebody out there knows something about this case.”

Now police and family are hoping someone comes forward so Kathy Miramontes’ murder can be solved.

“Regardless how she lived her life, she was someone’s mother, she was someone’s daughter. She had 4 grandkids that never got to see her,” Patino said.

Fremont police know it’s a tall order solving a 35-year-old murder but they say even a small nugget of information could turn things around. That’s why they want anyone, even anonymously, to come forward with any information they might have.